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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Breakfast at Tiffany's"Welcome Home" party for my lovely new "Classy Kitty" was a success! If you read part one, you remember that I used my handy dandy Party Planning Basics worksheet as well as Pinterest to help plan the party. Also, I was lucky enough to enlist the help of a creative friend to ensure the party was fabulous!

Here is how the "Breakfast" turned out...

(Check out the bottom left.. you can see a teeny tiny kitten paw!)

I decided that a breakfast buffet was the best idea for this party, mostly due to the "Breakfast" theme. I served sweets (my guests really like sweets) and some breakfast foods.

The decorations changed a lot from the original plan for the party, mostly because it was REALLY hard to find different pieces of Tiffany Blue products that matched! (Did you know that Tiffany Blue has its own Pantone color? The exact color is PMS 1847 and isn't available in any Pantone book.)

Due to the lack of matching decor, I decided to use the blue as an accent rather than the main color and to instead use black and white as the main colors of the party. To emphasize this, I used a black tablecloth with white plates as well as a black and white back drop.

Tip: Table back drops are a fun way to enhance the party decor. Also it's fun to dress up a wall if the everyday color doesn't match the party theme. A cheap and easy way to add a back drop is to use a plastic table cloth and hang it from the ceiling down to the floor.

As for adding the Tiffany Blue color to the table, I used an awesome icing recipie from Party Cupcake Ideas. They say to use 6 parts blue and 2 parts green food coloring. It worked perfectly! (I added some white sprinkles for added classiness!)

During my quest to find Tiffany Blue items, I happened to find Tiffany Blue Ribbon at the store and I used this on some candy and chocolate covered pretzels for some added flair.

A "How To" for these decorative candies is coming soon!

I made doughnut towers out of doughnuts holes and stuck a homemade 'Tiffany" tag into the top for some more "theme" decoration.

Milk Bottles are one of the cutest additions to a party table so I used some ribbon and more "Tiffany" tags to decorate the bottles.

Although the party decorations were a huge hit, I made sure that the Classy Kitty was the center of attention. (Unfortunatly she had to eat her regularly scheduled Chicken and Liver!) She received some new (not to mention AWESOME) toys and we all got to play. She is now comfortable in her new home and has adjusted marvelously. The Classy Kitty Party was so much fun, I can't wait to plan another one!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Lately I have been reading a great book, one that I would highly recommend, “Entertaining Simple” by Matthew Mead. In his book he not only gives a list of basic necessities for the at- home hostess but also recipes and party ideas for “every kind of gathering.” I found particularly useful the list of essential elements for parties. In this section he gives examples of different flatware, plates, and cups, etc, and information regarding how to store or display your collection. (Lots of inspiration for any party planner’s pantry!)

One piece from the list of essential elements that caught my eye was the non-traditional use of glass milk bottles. They can be used as glassware or even interesting centerpieces (LOTS OF OPTIONS!) You can find glass milk bottles online for purchase but that option didn’t fit in my budget. Instead, I figured out how to repurpose my glass Starbucks Frappuccino bottles into classy party décor and I wanted to share it with you all!

Here is how to make Glass Milk Bottles from Starbucks Frappuccino containers.

Bill of Materials:

Glass Starbucks Frappuccino Containers

Soap and Water

Wash Cloth

Nail Polish Remover

First: Empty the Starbucks Frappuccino containers (I drank mine!)

Second: Rinse them inside and out by letting them soak in hot water for a few minutes.

Third: Peel off Starbucks label (it might leave behind some sticky residue). Use a little elbow grease to scrub the sticky residue off the bottle with a wash cloth.

Fourth: Use nail polish remover to clean off any stubborn adhesive and the date from the bottle.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I got this idea from making Witch Hat Cookies for Halloween. If you change the candy and color of the hat’s band, they are PERFECT for Thanksgiving (and super fun for kids to make too!)

Here is a “How To” for Pilgrim Hat Cookies!

Bill of Materials:

Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies

Mini Reese's Cups

White Icing

Yellow Food Coloring

Ziploc Bag or Icing Bag

First: Gather up your supplies and make space for your project on your kitchen table or counter.

TIP: When buying supplies, make sure you buy extra cookies than what you need. Sometimes the Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies aren’t in one piece by the time you get them home. (Or you might have little fingers steal one or two in the process!)

Second: Mix Icing with a few drops of Yellow food coloring and put into a ziplock bag (or icing bag if you have one).

Third: Take wrappers off Reese's Cups

Fourth: Lay cookies upside down on your work place

Fifth: Put a very thick circle of icing around the circle in the middle of the cookie.

Sixth: Place Reese's Cup on Cookie

Option 2: If you aren’t a big fan of Reese's you can use Rolos instead (or mix it up!)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

I have to apologize for my short absence! I have been a bit busy due to the addition to my household: A beautiful kitten!

I have never had a pet (other than my betta fish) before, and if you have or ever had a kitten, you know how much work they can be! But she loves to give kisses and cuddle.

During my absence I’ve spent the last two weeks re-arranging my townhouse to better suite my new kitten, as well as thinking about planning (you guessed it...) a “Welcome to the Family” party!

As you can imagine my fur-baby is a Classy Kitty, so she is going to need a classy party for an introduction to her new family and friends. I decided to begin organizing the event by using the Party Planning Basics Worksheet (you can find this worksheet here) as a starting point for planning the shin-dig.

Here are my notes so far:

As you can see the details are a bit sparse, so I decided to log onto one of my favorite websites, Pinterest, to get some inspiration for my theme “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

If you have never used Pinterest before, it is a virtual pinboard website, where you can save your favorite “things” via a virtual pin board. If you want to learn more about this awesome resource go here.

I use Pinterest to track not only my favorite products and recipes, but also my personal style as well as (you guessed again!) party ideas!!

When I have a new party to plan, I first create a new pin board, and then search a few key words and start pinning what I like. Once I have a decent amount of pins collected to a board, I look them all over to reflect and start making decisions!